Good News

I’ve had benign fasciculations for 8 years.

My history: I had a period of depression/burnout with fear of imminent death from age 17 to 23. I’ve been a hypochondriac since I was 17. My fasciculations started a few months after the birth of my second child, around age 27, during which I went through a traumatic event that put me into a state of complex PTSD. The anesthetist forced a medical procedure on me without consent while I was pushing. I was made to give birth in silence, without moving, in pain, so that the anesthesia needle wouldn’t cause lifelong injury. I was literally touching my baby’s head with my hands when he released me. I can’t say for sure that my BFS started at that exact moment, because it appeared a few months later, but that event triggered complex PTSD. Around the same time, I also had undiagnosed acid reflux that made me choke at night.

My symptoms: For the first two years, symptoms kept increasing: irregular fasciculations all over, hundreds and hundreds of times per day, even vibrating in my ears and waking me up at night. In the following years, I also experienced fast, rhythmic internal tremors. I had an EMG and the results were normal. During that time, I was convinced I was going to die.

After more than 7 years of fasciculations, I haven’t had any fasciculations or tremors for months now. This seems to coincide with stopping caffeine (I drink tea instead). I suspect I’m intolerant to something in coffee.

Otherwise, my life is still stressful: I currently have two almost full-time jobs, a teenager and a neurodivergent child.

That’s it…

Seven years ago, I would have really appreciated reading a testimony like this. Especially when I was sure I had a serious disease and doctors couldn’t figure it out. Just to say that sometimes it gets worse, sometimes it gets better, right now it’s almost gone and more important, I am still alive and quite healthy.

Good luck to all of you.